A Dangerous Way to Live Well: Twins on Record-Setting HBP Pace, For Good and Ill

[Peter Labuza]

The Minnesota Twins are on pace to break a painful record in 2024: most times hit by a pitch at bat. Here's a look behind how players like Willi Castro and Ryan Jeffers are taking lead on a not-so-pleasant stat.

Image courtesy of © Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Willi Castro had a chance to break the game open against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the top of the 10th inning. Although the Twins had brought a run across the plate, the automatic runner in extra innings meant no guarantee of a win. Castro fell behind early with two strikes, but then got a lucky break.

Except in his mind, it wasn’t so lucky: 

The Twins have been the recipients of 57 plunkings over the first half of the season—one ahead of their rivals, the Cleveland Guardians. That’s on pace for over 114 hit by pitches (HBPs), eight more than the record set by Buck Showalter’s Mets in 2022. And if Matt Wallner rejoins the squad, given his penchant for hit by pitches, they will almost certainly set an unexpected record. 

Plunk me once, shame on you. Plunk me twice, shame on me? It certainly seems like more than dumb luck that the Twins have become targets for those on the mound (and on top of that, very good luck that Carlos Correa narrowly missed a few broken bones in the rubber game against the Diamondbacks). But there are some surprising decisions by the batters that have resulted in the not-so-lucky chase for bruised glory.

Hit by pitches have generally increased in recent years. What was once limited to a revenge decision (and as we saw Kody Funderburk plunk Blaze Alexander, occasionally still is) has become quite common in recent years. While I cannot say for certain, I do not believe any of the HBPs this season have been thrown with malice. Instead, it's just the new norm. With pitchers throwing more gas on off speed pitches and three true outcomes pushing for more pitches in general, teams seemed to have accepted there is little difference between a walk and an HBP. And in the same way that “he gets on base” might have become the first turn toward baseball analytics, teams are willing to let players take the base.

Teams have certainly begun strategizing for “plate crowding.” During the 2021 Astros-Braves World Series, the not-so-great catcher Martín Maldonado came up to bat with the bases loaded in Game 5. Maldonado specifically chose to crowd the plate and took a plunk from A.J. Minter’s wild cutter. “Did you guys notice how close he was to the plate on the at-bat against Minter?” A future Twins shortstop told The Athletic at the time. “That was sick.” Perhaps Correa brought that energy to the Twins, though in the words of Jean Renoir, everyone has their reasons. 

There is one curious stat that helps us understand exactly why these HBPs might be landing on Twins’ arms more than others. Baseball Savant provides a stat called Plate X, an advanced metric that measures the horizontal distance of the ball when crossing the plate from its direct center. Obviously, the Plate X for all HBPs is going to be further out than 0. But when you break out each player, most of them are below the MLB average. These are not balls traveling that far outside the zone.

	# of Ht By Pitches	Plate X (Closer to 0, Closer to Plate)
MLB Average - Righties		-1.94
Margot	3	-1.66
Correa	2	-1.68
Jeffers	11	-1.77
Castro (RHB)	1	-1.81
Farmer	6	-1.83
Buxton	7	-2.21
Miranda	3	-2.18
MLB Average - Lefties		1.99
Castro (LHB)	10	1.76
Wallner	4	1.52
Kepler	3	1.76
Santana (LHB)	3	2.01

Two hitters in particular are leading the way: Ryan Jeffers and Willi Castro. Both have been hit 11 times. There are obvious reasons why pitchers pound them low and inside. They swing and miss most often when locating there, and when they do it, it’s most likely to be a ground ball:

Jeffers is a curious case. When asked about the bruises, Jeffers simply described himself as turning into an armadillo, unable to really move out of the way.

But looking at his actual plate appearances, there is a curious problem he faces: Jeffers is a toe tapper when he swings:

 Many players throughout baseball end up tapping their foot before grounding, but what makes Jeffers a curious case is he does it so late in his swing. Here are three images from games where Jeffers is right about to be hit—the ball is halfway to the plate and Jeffers has not yet begun to move. He’s too busy setting his timing with the darn toe:

No wonder why he has little time to get out of the way.

Castro is a different case. At 6’1” and just a bit over 200 lbs, he is a rather slight player. He has also admitted he likes to crowd the plate. 

But more than anything, he really, really loves to swing across the whole plate. This would not be a problem if Castro was Aaron Judge. But because he is a little guy with a below-average swing length, he often throws his whole body into it.

If you look at his home runs, he will often end up with a foot right in the middle of the zone because of the amount of spin on his body. Here are three home run machines and Castro at the end of their home runs, and you can see where the body lands:

Castro uses his body so much that, well, he can end up on his ass, which we saw against the Diamondbacks:

So what does that have to do with HBPs? Castro loves hunting for that nicely placed ball on the outside of the zone, so he is certainly standing closer to the plate. This is not someone thinking about getting hit. Instead, he is simply fishing to ensure those meatballs end up as dingers.

The common thread here is balance, and the ability it provides to get out of the way when the ball comes at you. Jeffers gets his front foot down very late, which leaves him almost no time in which to make a move, because you can't bail out effectively with that foot in the air. Castro has the foot down sooner, but is transferring his weight and a whole lot of kinetic energy down through that leg just as the ball is reaching him. He's even more locked into his spot in the box than Jeffers, just with the other leg. You'll often see some hitters raise their hands, go casually up on tip-toes, and let a ball sail by, within a few inches of their pants or shirtfront. Neither Jeffers nor Castro really has that move in their bag of tricks.

Other Twins are creeping up in HBPs: Byron Buxton has now reached seven, a curious case given how much he deliberately chooses to not crowd the plate, while Kyle Farmer has six (notably in low playing time) and Santana sits at four. (Wallner, in his brief time at the beginning of the season, also amassed four.) But no one is doing it like Jeffers and Castro. 

After becoming the Bomba Squad in 2019, I doubt the Twins hoped to become the Bruise Squad. But, recent offensive production suggests whatever the team is doing at the plate is working. So, let us salute the beans! Let those smacks lead to runs scored. Just watch out for those dear little bones.

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[Patzky]

FWIW the Yankees hit Kiner Falefa three times in last night's lose to Toronto! History..?

[LambchoP]

I just about had a heart attack when I saw Correa get plunked last night. Dodged a bullet there. Was nice to see Funderburk get the team some revenge after they hit Buxton and almost ended Correas season...

[Dman]

Thanks for this article was wondering if it was just the Twins or other teams as well, as I don't remember them getting getting plunked this much.  I assume it will slow down and I always about injury with those especially at catcher as they get bruised up enough as it is.

[Aggies7]

The twins have THREE players in the top 15 in all of MLB for HBP. At some point it can no longer be tolerated and yesterday was that point. Arizona did not react angrily either, they understood what would happen after Correa seemed to break his wrist (thankfully not). Glen laid it out pretty well in the booth yesterday. That’s how the game is played. And should be played. Nothing above the chest and it’s all good.

[Karbo]

I worry that someone is going to get seriously injured. Correa was hit on the wrist, but if that would have been on the hand there would probably be broken bones. With so many wearing body armor they don't fear the HBP as much.

[jmlease1]

Hopefully guys are wearing wrist guards and so forth to protect more vulnerable parts of the body. Because I suspect it's not going to lighten up much (Martin has a long minor league history of getting plunked even if it hasn't shown up so far in MLB), especially with the pitching focus on max effort. It's going to send more and more pitches into guys when they can't control it as well trying to gas it up more.

[FlyingFinn]

Pitchers win by throwing harder and harder and throwing inside. That's a recipe for more hbp's and injuries. There are going to be a lot of pretend fights where benches clear but also a few brawls as the summer heats up. 

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Pitchers win by throwing harder and harder and throwing inside. That's a recipe for more hbp's and injuries. There are going to be a lot of pretend fights where benches clear but also a few brawls as the summer heats up. 

There's a lot more of batters who make a conscious decision to not get out of the way as well. Wallner is a perfect example. He'll make no effort not to get hit.

Wallner has historically ended his stance sooooo close to the plate, it makes him vulnerable to inside strikes. Double-edged sword.

[Squirrel]

2 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

The twins have THREE players in the top 15 in all of MLB for HBP. At some point it can no longer be tolerated and yesterday was that point. Arizona did not react angrily either, they understood what would happen after Correa seemed to break his wrist (thankfully not). Glen laid it out pretty well in the booth yesterday. That’s how the game is played. And should be played. Nothing above the chest and it’s all good.

If pitchers actually start aiming at the batters, even if their intent is below the chest, I hope it’s someone with absolute control. With the spin and pace some pitchers throw today, and with less control, aiming at batters is a recipe for serious injury. I don’t agree responding to an unintentional hbp with an intentional hbp. As I said last night, I don’t know the answer, but retaliatory violence isn’t something I condone. Maybe start looking at the pitchers, and start removing them from the game or fining them. It only takes one slip and that intentional hnp ends a career because of the max levels the balls today are being thrown at. They hit us by accident, we hit them intentionally. So they hit us intentionally, then we hit them again. Where does that end? Maybe the solution is with the pitchers themselves.

[Aggies7]

2 hours ago, Squirrel said:

If pitchers actually start aiming at the batters, even if their intent is below the chest, I hope it’s someone with absolute control. With the spin and pace some pitchers throw today, and with less control, aiming at batters is a recipe for serious injury. I don’t agree responding to an unintentional hbp with an intentional hbp. As I said last night, I don’t know the answer, but retaliatory violence isn’t something I condone. Maybe start looking at the pitchers, and start removing them from the game or fining them. It only takes one slip and that intentional hnp ends a career because of the max levels the balls today are being thrown at. They hit us by accident, we hit them intentionally. So they hit us intentionally, then we hit them again. Where does that end? Maybe the solution is with the pitchers themselves.

It ended yesterday. I don’t think Arizona is going to stew over what happened until we play them again next season. That would be insane.

Again I think if you let things slide with impunity, then our batters will definitely continue to get hit at a league-leading pace and it’s only a matter of time before someone misses extended time with a HBP related injury. Imagine losing Correa for months. Would have been disastrous. I’m not saying that pitchers are going to stop pitching inside, they have a right to do so. But put the idea in their heads that we aren’t going to let it slide unaddressed, maybe they’ll be more careful. Word will get around the league that we aren’t going to let our star players be hit by reckless or inaccurate pitching. Just like it would get around that we won’t do anything about it. 

[Squirrel]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

It ended yesterday. I don’t think Arizona is going to stew over what happened until we play them again next season. That would be insane.

Again I think if you let things slide with impunity, then our batters will definitely continue to get hit at a league-leading pace and it’s only a matter of time before someone misses extended time with a HBP related injury. Imagine losing Correa for months. Would have been disastrous. I’m not saying that pitchers are going to stop pitching inside, they have a right to do so. But put the idea in their heads that we aren’t going to let it slide unaddressed, maybe they’ll be more careful. Word will get around the league that we aren’t going to let our star players be hit by reckless or inaccurate pitching. Just like it would get around that we won’t do anything about it. 

You  make it sound like our players are being targeted ... I don't think that's the case. I don't think it's intentional. I don't know why our players are getting hit more than others. But I agree something should be done. I just don't believe in 'old school' violent retaliation as you do. We can keep going, but on this we just disagree.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

...Again I think if you let things slide with impunity, then our batters will definitely continue to get hit at a league-leading pace and it’s only a matter of time before someone misses extended time with a HBP related injury...

 

41 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

...I don't know why are players are getting hit more than others. But I agree something should be done...

The chart above shows part of why Twins batters are getting hit so much. The Twins crowd the plate so if a pitch misses inside, Twins batters are more likely to get HBP than the average hitter. Pitchers are aiming low and inside because when you crowd the plate, that becomes a very difficult pitch to drive well. On top of that, late toe taps like Jeffers has makes it more difficult for him to get out of the way.

Still an issue, but I agree with @Squirrel that the HBP's are not intentional. Retaliation for unintentional HBP is stupid because all it does is beget more retaliation against your own hitters. Just like when Delmon Young lost it on Jose Mijares back in 2009 because Mijares hit a guy intentionally for no good reason, and that resulted in Young taking a ball to the back next time through the order.

Funderburk just missed IMHO. It might have looked like retaliation, but I don't think it was. It didn't make any sense for it to be retaliation since it came so much later, and after Funderburk had already pitched an inning plus another couple batters, and there was a wild pitch right after the HBP. 

[wabene]

I had no problem with Fundy plunking Blaze. The bottom of the ninth in a blowout in the last game of the series was ideal timing. No more retaliation. No effect on the result of the game. Now it wouldn't be necessary if pitchers were warned after the first and a penalty assessed after that culminating with ejection. There is nearly no recourse the way it is now. The Twins have been hit at a very noticable rate lately with no retaliation until the bottom of the ninth last night.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, wabene said:

I had no problem with Fundy plunking Blaze. The bottom of the ninth in a blowout in the last game of the series was ideal timing. No more retaliation. No effect on the result of the game. Now it wouldn't be necessary if pitchers were warned after the first and a penalty assessed after that culminating with ejection. There is nearly no recourse the way it is now. The Twins have been hit at a very noticable rate lately with no retaliation until the bottom of the ninth last night.

If you can't tell whether or not it's an intentional HBP, there is no message sent. If Funderburk wanted to send a message, it should have been the first pitch of of his night, not literally the 25th after issuing a walk and missing the zone all over the place. But, again, I think Funderburk was just wild.

It was Caleb Thielbar or Cole Sands' message to send since they pitched after the Correa HBP. Funderburk had no business making the call if it was intentional. Let the veterans decide the correct course of action and learn from them. If Thielbar and Sands were okay with it, Funderburk should to stay in his lane.

If it was intentional, Funderburk can go back to AAA because it was cheap, it was dirty and it didn't send any message anyway because he was so wild on his first 24 pitches and 7 batters faced.

[wabene]

19 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

If you can't tell whether or not it's an intentional HBP, there is no message sent. If Funderburk wanted to send a message, it should have been the first pitch of of his night, not literally the 25th after issuing a walk and missing the zone all over the place. But, again, I think Funderburk was just wild.

It was Caleb Thielbar or Cole Sands' message to send since they pitched after the Correa HBP. Funderburk had no business making the call if it was intentional. Let the veterans decide the correct course of action and learn from them. If Thielbar and Sands were okay with it, Funderburk should to stay in his lane.

If it was intentional, Funderburk can go back to AAA because it was cheap, it was dirty and it didn't send any message anyway because he was so wild on his first 24 pitches and 7 batters faced.

The back of the thigh is a beaner, bean😂

[Aggies7]

54 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

If you can't tell whether or not it's an intentional HBP, there is no message sent. If Funderburk wanted to send a message, it should have been the first pitch of of his night, not literally the 25th after issuing a walk and missing the zone all over the place. But, again, I think Funderburk was just wild.

It was Caleb Thielbar or Cole Sands' message to send since they pitched after the Correa HBP. Funderburk had no business making the call if it was intentional. Let the veterans decide the correct course of action and learn from them. If Thielbar and Sands were okay with it, Funderburk should to stay in his lane.

If it was intentional, Funderburk can go back to AAA because it was cheap, it was dirty and it didn't send any message anyway because he was so wild on his first 24 pitches and 7 batters faced.

Maybe you couldn’t tell, but everyone else could. I do agree it should have been sooner though. Perkins was 100% in agreement that it was intentional and “a part of the game” aka warranted. I’d be willing to bet that many if not most former players would agree. Heck, Arizona didn’t even seem bothered.

[nclahammer]

"After becoming the Bomba Squad in 2019, I doubt the Twins hoped to become the Bruise Squad. "

My nominee for best nickname for this squad if this record-setting pace continues is The Bruise Brothers (of  Dan Akroyd and John Bulushi fame.)   Please stay safe my Twins.

[bean5302]

18 hours ago, wabene said:

The back of the thigh is a beaner, bean😂

 

17 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

Maybe you couldn’t tell, but everyone else could. I do agree it should have been sooner though. Perkins was 100% in agreement that it was intentional and “a part of the game” aka warranted. I’d be willing to bet that many if not most former players would agree. Heck, Arizona didn’t even seem bothered.

Then Funderburk can live in AAA for a couple months to learn.